Martha Wells

My Flying Lizard Circus

FYI

December 30th, 2016

Just an update on me. Over the past two weeks or so, I started to have pain and stiffness in my right hand, which then increased rapidly and spread to my left hand, to the point that on the day after Christmas, I couldn't make a fist with either hand, it was hard to pick things up, etc. I've been to my doctor and he's tentatively diagnosed arthritis, maybe with a side order of mild carpal tunnel. I'm making appointments with specialists to try to figure out a treatment. The pain varies a lot throughout the day and night, but at this point I can still type. So. That's how I am, how are you?

That sucks. I hope they work out (and fix) whatever's wrong with your hands. Dictation software just isn't a good enough replacement for writing (typing).

My day's been quite lovely. I spent my time with some of my guild mates doing achievements so we could get a rare hippogriff. It was fun! Cats featured prominently, either by chewing on things, jumping on chairs and purring down the microphone, or going to play with power sockets causing their owners to run off and chase them.

The weather has been excellent for gaming today. No glare whatsoever, mostly due to the fact that there's been fog outside all day. It still hasn't lifted, and it's night time now. I have the sneaking suspicion that if I go outside I may be devoured by some hidden shambling monster.

Good thing I have no intention of doing anything so foolish (active? productive?).

I love lazy holidays. Come Tuesday and I'll have to go back to being a productive member of society. *sigh*

After we got through Christmas, I went back to focusing on trying to get enough sleep. Possibly as a result, I've spent most of this past week either A) getting sick, B) trying not to get sick, or C) paying off a really huge sleep debt. I'm honestly not sure which it was, but I'm finally starting to feel less exhausted and out of sorts. Yay!

Meanwhile, my two boys (ages 6 & 10) have taken to staying up as late as they can manage, and engaging in massive Nerf wars when they should be getting ready for bed. Never has one father been shot with so many Nerf darts...

Ugh, no fun! And must be so worrisome, since typing's kind of what you do! My wrists did a Weird Thing nearly six years ago, that they thought was carpel tunnel but really turned out to be muscle knots all up and down my shoulders and my entire body out of whack (stress contortions ftw!). Then my entire body did a Weird Thing and spent a year feeling like an 80 year old person with exhaustion and aching joints - doc visits were no help, closest thing I could find was Myofascial Pain Syndrome, and after trying some massage therapy targeted for that and learning some self-massage I could do on my own it gradually got better, and I'm a lot more careful now about posture and regular breaks and stretching when I've been on the computer for awhile or I can feel myself turning into one giant knot of muscle panic.

I am having a pretty good day - wrote a fanfic! First thing I've managed to write this year, nothing brilliant, but I'll take it! And I'm very excited that work will be closed on New Year's Day, but the official holiday is on Monday, so I can go in and clean out an extremely cluttered room that's been driving me nuts for two years but I can't really clean it with other humans around because it requires making a tremendous mess first.

I have been dealing with an incursion of squirrels into the attic and the subsequent discovery that a vent on the roof is missing its "roof boot." This is not how they got in -- they chewed a huge hole in the fascia board between soffitt and gutter -- but they could if they wanted to; so that has to get repaired too. So far the squirrel whisperer has removed four squirrels from the attic in traps and reports a fifth, dead one. Joy. He will try to get it out with his snake-handling tool once the live ones are out. 0-0.

I'm sorry, arthritis hurts and it can get depressing. I've got it in my hands, too. Here are a few things I've learned. Anti-inflammatories help, ibuprofen and naproxen if you can take orally, prescription gels if you can't. Heat helps a lot! Heating pads or microwaveable pads are easiest (while watching TV or a movie works so you don't have to use your hands). Washing dishes actually helps.

There are all kinds of gadgets, I use a switchbladelike device for my keys that provides leverage. Rubber door handle covers let you open doors without having to grasp the handle. Squares of honeycomb shelf liner help grasp and open jars, rubber grips on pens make it easier to write by hand. Don't stop moving, your hands will hurt more if they don't move!

As for me, I own a bookstore and next week I'm taking over the lease on the space next to me and expanding. I'll have more room to expand my children's section and I'll have so much more space to display. I can't wait to get my hands on a paintbrush!

I go to an integrative medicine doctor, who agreed that this sounded promising. This all just happened a couple of months ago, so I can't speak to effectiveness of treatment yet. The doc also sent me to a chiropractor who has an acoustical wave machine, with which he has been shooting sound waves into my hip, and that has helped. However, I have a subchondral bone cyst in my hip, and I'm not sure whether the sound waves just help with that, or with the arthritis generally. You could ask.

Hope this is the final flourish of horrible 2016 for you and 2017 is better!

Ow. I have arthritis in my hands, too, so - yeah. Not fun. FWIW, I second the recommendation of heat. It really seems to help. Another thing that's made typing easier for me is to wear close-fitting knitted half-gloves. They cover my knuckles but leave fingers free, and the combination of gentle compression and staying warm seems to help.

Other than that, I survived holidays with my kin (mostly thanks to my French cousin, who brought a quantity of excellent Provençal wine) and have all the ingredients for a traditional New Year's meal tucked into my icebox. I figure we need all the luck we can get...

Arthritis sucks - I've had it in my knees and ankles for about ten years now.

One thing I have found helps is exercise, at least specific kinds and at a moderate level -- too much or the wrong kind can make it worse. But gradually building strength in the muscles that support the affected joints can help take some of the stress of them, which in turn can help reduce inflammation, and gentle stretching can help reduce stiffness and increase joint mobility. It's not a panacea, but it does help... I'm less familiar with how this might work for hands than legs, but it might be worth going to see a physiotherapist to find out if there are some potentially useful exercise options.